Around this time 30 years ago, Eraserheads was lording the charts and was about six months away from releasing what’s generally regarded as their finest album: Cutterpillow.
I was recently asked by a colleague if I could list down my top Eraserheads songs. I responded that it’s a tough list to make, considering the band’s numerous hits and equally many deserving deep cuts. I tried it anyway, and here’s what I came up with.
“Ang Huling El Bimbo”
As a teenager, I told my younger brother, who’s a super Eraserheads fan, that this epic is the best yet that Pinoy Rock has produced. Thirty years after its release from the Cutterpillow album, it still is, with its nostalgic narrative, sing-along chorus, and nearly two-minute rock opera outro that can bring shivers down your spine.
“Spoliarium”
It sounds like gossip that this song gets associated with a dead starlet. Bless her soul, sincerely. But this is a track reflecting one’s mental state after having taken too much alcohol and wondering why the hell we do exist. My friend Espie Eusebio, who went with the Eraserheads members on tour as she worked for their label then, posted on Facebook that the Enteng and Joey mentioned in the song are not celebrities. Pass the glass, please, if you may.
“Magasin”
This one contains the most effective twist ever injected in a Filipino-written song. It’s a track from the ‘90s, as porn sites weren’t yet around. Having said that, you may say it’s outdated. But I bet it’s still the song teasing in your head when seeing former shy schoolmates and playmates now flaunting themselves in sexy outfits on social media. We don’t know why they do it, but perhaps, medyo pangit pa sila noon.
“Pare Ko”
Ely Buendia’s special gift as a songwriter manifested first on this track. My initial reaction to hearing “Ligaya” was like, “Okay, here’s another band trying to capture the attention of the masses.” But “Pare Ko” spoke like a sincere friend. Its power is visceral, and the inclusion of bad words in the chorus doesn’t sound forced.
“With A Smile”
The band’s chief songwriter and lead singer aptly described his composition as a super cute love song. This number needed a superbly strong verse melody to fully stand. It has no chorus. The first lines sung right at the beginning—“Lift your head / Baby, don’t be scared”—are arresting enough for us to willingly wait until the singer says he wants to hear us singing, too. Its placement on the Circus album as the track following the frenetic chaos of “Insomya” was a brilliant stroke of sequencing. In a snap of a finger, we’re brought to this serenading piece.
“Poor Man’s Grave”
The intro riff, the haunting melody of the verses, the Beatle-ish chorus, the plot’s excruciatingly painful yet beautiful irony, and the final notes that mimic a punebre (funeral music)—all lead to a powerful track that, while it may not be appropriate to be released as a single, is certainly a candidate for the best album track outside of the singles released from the loaded Cutterpillow. It is a song that, even without the aid of radio airplay, was bound to be a classic.
“Hard To Believe”
The drum track on this song, which I read Buddy Zabala laid down, carried the piece with a soft touch like Ringo Starr did for “Here, There and Everywhere.” That it is not a straight love song—even if the melody leads it to—makes it truly interesting. The falsetto part in the chorus is uplifting; metaphorically, it’s “close enough to touch” heaven.
“Overdrive”
The fun of traveling Pinoy-style and enjoying places within the Philippine archipelago is coolly reflected in this number, anchored on Buddy Zabala’s frolicking bass lines as if saying he’s the guy steering the trip. Everyone else should just enjoy it. His playing is so confident and full of command that it can fly to the moon if it wants, which at some point in the song it does.
“Playground”
An out-of-the-Eheads-box composition by Raimund Marasigan, which could have been their direction had they gone on after Carbon Stereoxide. Ely Buendia’s vocals do real justice to the fact that you can dance to it. The point where it sings, “You are the TV dynamite…” is the best bridge in an Eraserheads song.
“Scorpio Rising”
Thank God this pre-fame composition from Ely Buendia was pulled from the Pop-U demo-quality album and became a furnished gem that appeared on Aloha Milky Way. The tune is somewhat devoid of pattern, yet catchy, like free verse poetry that needs to be. The lyrics said that the writer penned this song while eating beans, and he doesn’t want to be asked what he meant by that. That’s a songwriter telling us that some songs fall into one’s lap already written, fine without a formula. And you have to wait for about five seconds of silence at the end of it to hear the drummer stress that point.
